Ocotea.] ex VI. laurine^e (staff). 187 



1. O. usambarensis, Engl, in Ahh. Preuss. Akad. Wise. (1894), 

 51, 54 ; F/l. Ost-A/r. 0. 182. A tree up to 130 ft. high ; trunk up to 

 11 J ft. in diam.; branchlets softly and spreadingly pubescent to 

 tomentose or with the exception of the youngest parts glabrous and 

 then drying blackish. Leaves rather crowded, alternate, subopposite 

 or opposite, broad-elliptic, obtuse at both ends, margins of the young 

 leaves more or less revolute, 2-2 J in. long, 1J-1| in. broad, thinly 

 coriaceous, somewhat bullate, whitish or glaucous below, softly hairy on 

 both sides when young, glabrescent above and sometimes also below, 

 but less completely so ; midrib narrow above, broader and raised 

 below ; lateral nerves 5-7, spreading or oblique, often forking, sunk 

 above, raised below, venation irregular, fine, quite obscure above ; 

 petiole 2-5 lin. long, terete, finely channelled above, more or less 

 tomentose or pubescent. Panicles from the axils of the uppermost 

 leaves, subcorymbose, fulvous- or greyish-hairy all over, |-1 in. long, 

 1 in. wide, on slender peduncles 1-2 in. long; bracts ovate, obtuse, 

 densely pubescent, up to over 1 lin. long, very early deciduous ; 

 pedicels very short to 1 lin. long. Perianth densely pubescent to 

 tomentellous without, 2J-3 lin. across when quite open ; receptacle 

 turbinate, about J lin. high, hairy within ; segments spreading, about 

 IJ lin. long, the outer elliptic-oblong, inner broad-ovate, all obtuse, 

 pubescent within, particularly the outer. Stamens of the herma- 

 phrodite flowers with linear filaments, as long as the anthers and very 

 finely pubescent or the inner glabrous on the back ; glands shortly but 

 distinctly stalked, subglobose, inserted on each side of the base of the 

 stamens of the third whorl; staminodes about J lin. long, filiform, with 

 a dark gland-like tip ; stamens and staminodes of the female very much 

 reduced. Ovary immersed, but free, in the receptacle, ovoid, like the 

 slender style glabrous; stigma discoid. Fruit globose or ellipsoid- 

 globose, 4-5 lin. long, borne on the upward-thickened pedicel and 

 seated in the enlarged cupular receptacle, 2 lin. across and almost 

 1 lin. deep. Testa crustaceous. 



wile ]band. British East Africa: forests on Mount Kenia and the Aberdare 

 Range, Mutchins ! Battiscomhe, 16 ! 



Mozamb. Blst. German East Africa : Usambara ; Silai, Hoist ^ 1301 ! 



An account of this very valuable timber tree was given by Mr. D. E. Hutchins 

 in Colonial Reports — Miscellaneous, No. 41, 1907, 18, under the name of Ibean 

 camphor or mozaiti (Kikuyu). Seedlings and root-suckers referred to the 

 " mozaiti " were communicated by Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Battiscombe. The 

 seedlings and the root-suckers are, apart from the terminal buds, almost entirely 

 glabrous, but the tomentum of the buds is of the same kind as in the adult plant. 

 The leaves of the suckers and the youngest seedlings are papery, 3-5 in. long and 

 1^-2 in. wide, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, and more or less acutely acuminate. 

 Those of the older seedlings are broad-elliptic, and 3-6 in. by 2-3-i^ in., and their 

 reticulation is very marked on the upper side. An older branch, collected at 

 Karoris, in the Aberdare Forest, is also glabrous, but has the coriaceous irregu- 

 larly veined leaves of the flowering specimens described above. According to 

 a communication by Professor Engler, similar variations occur in the Usambara 

 Mountains. 



